Diplomat Airs Benghazi Attack Details

In Riveting Account of Libya Raid,
Official Knocks Administration Response

By

Siobhan Hughes And

Adam Entous

Updated May 8, 2013 8:29 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON—A high-ranking American diplomat delivered an emotional reconstruction Wednesday of the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, providing the first detailed public account from an American official who was on the ground in Libya.

ENLARGE

Gregory Hicks told a House hearing of the harrowing attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The testimony from
Gregory Hicks,
the No. 2 U.S. official in Libya at the time, before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee also drew new attention to key questions about the attacks, and how the administration handled the aftermath.

The diplomat said he believes the U.S. military could have done more to assist U.S. personnel on the ground. He also said top officials in Washington overlooked information in their early conclusion, since abandoned, that the attack began as a protest.

The riveting narrative from Mr. Hicks, a career diplomat, could revive an issue that had begun to fade after the re-election of President Barack Obama and the confirmation this year of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry.

Mark Thompson,
the deputy coordinator for operations at the State Department's Bureau of Counterterrorism in Washington, and
Eric Nordstrom,
who was in charge of U.S. security in Libya until shortly before the attacks, also testified.

Mr. Hicks recounted his last conversation with U.S. Ambassador
Christopher Stevens,
his own desperate appeals for help, and the moment he received "the saddest phone call I've ever had in my life." Mr. Stevens and three other Americans died in the attacks.

Mark Thompson, Gregory Hicks and Eric Nordstrom of the State Department give testimony to Congress about the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Photo: Getty Images.

Republicans charge the Obama administration hasn't told all it knows about the periods before, during and after the assault. The administration and Democrats say that dozens of hours of public testimony and thousands of pages of documents, along with an exhaustive independent investigation, have settled the outstanding questions.

Pentagon officials rebutted Mr. Hicks' testimony Wednesday, saying the military wasn't in position to mount a rescue that night, and on that critical matter, the hearing didn't shed new light. The administration's allies have called the Republican-led House investigations, under way in five different committees, politically motivated, aimed at discrediting former Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton
,
a leading candidate for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.

Mr. Hicks alleged he was demoted for challenging the official line, specifically the picture painted during TV interviews by United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, who said the rampage grew out of a protest over a U.S.-made, anti-Islamic video that sparked anti-American demonstrations across the Mideast and Europe.

"I was stunned, my jaw dropped and I was embarrassed," Mr. Hicks said of his reaction to Ms. Rice's statements.

During a return to Washington to attend a funeral for one of the men killed, Mr. Hicks said he was summoned to the office of an undersecretary "and she delivered a blistering critique of my management style." Based in part on the criticism, Mr. Hicks said he agreed to curtail his employment in Libya. Mr. Hicks said he wound up as a foreign affairs officer.

Mr. Hicks also criticized Mrs. Clinton for minimizing debate about when the administration realized the attacks were terrorism. In January, questioned by lawmakers, she threw up her arms and, noting there were four dead Americans, asked, "What difference at this point does it make?"

Mr. Hicks said Libya's new leader, Mohamed Magariaf, who was trying to establish credibility after the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi, had already declared that the attack resulted from terrorism. Mrs. Clinton's statement, Mr. Hicks said, was an affront to the Libyan leader.

"His credibility was reduced," Mr. Hicks said. "And I definitely believe that it negatively affected our ability to get the FBI team quickly to Benghazi" to investigate the attacks.

Mr. Hicks, by turns calm and emotional, told lawmakers his story of the night of last Sept. 11. He said he was at home in Tripoli watching television when a foreign-service officer ran in at 9:45 p.m. local time, yelling, "Greg, Greg, the consulate's under attack."

Checking his cellphone, Mr. Hicks said he saw two missed phone calls, one from Mr. Stevens and one from a phone number he didn't recognize.

Mr. Hicks said he called the number he didn't recognize and Mr. Stevens answered. "Greg, we're under attack," Mr. Stevens said before the call cut off. It was the first stage in a frightening and chaotic episode for State Department staffers in Libya.

Just before 11 p.m., Mr. Hicks said he asked the embassy's defense attaché, who was in contact with the Pentagon's Africa Command in Stuttgart, Germany, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, whether any military aircraft were on the way.

"Is anything coming? Will they be sending us any help? Is there something out there?" Mr. Hicks said he asked.

The defense attaché told him that the nearest fighter jets were based in Italy, and it would take two to three hours for them to "get on-site"—but there were no air-refueling aircraft available so they could make the trip.

"I said, 'Thank you very much.' And we went on with our work," Mr. Hicks testified.

At about 12:30 a.m. local time, diplomats in Tripoli learned of a new threat by Islamists—to attack the embassy complex in the Libyan capital city. The 55 diplomatic personnel in two facilities began to prepare to evacuate.

Through the night, Mr. Hicks and his team frantically decided they needed to send a second team from Tripoli to Benghazi to secure the airport for the withdrawal of personnel. They decided that a team of special-operations forces should go. But the team was told to stand down, a call Mr. Hicks said he believed came from the military.

Timeline

Here is a timeline of the U.S. military's response to the Benghazi attacks, as compiled by the Defense Department (all times local)

12:30 a.m. (approximately): A six-man security team — four are part of a quick-reaction force and two are special-operations force members — leave Tripoli on a Learjet to Benghazi.

12:30 a.m. (approximately): In a different part of Tripoli, four of the Army's Green Berets, who are in Libya on a training mission, are asked to awaken U.S. personnel and help with a preventive evacuation in Tripoli.

Mr. Hicks quoted a lieutenant colonel as telling him: "This is the first time in my career that a diplomat has more balls than somebody in the military."

At 2 a.m., Mrs. Clinton and her top advisers called Mr. Hicks for an update. "She asked me what was going on and I briefed her on developments," Mr. Hicks said, adding that most of the call was about the search for Mr. Stevens.

Mr. Hicks said that he didn't discuss whether the attack was terrorist-related with Mrs. Clinton, because he had already reported that assertion.

Mr. Hicks said during the night, the embassy received several calls from Mr. Stevens's phone in which a caller said: "We know where the ambassador is. Please, you can come get him."

Mr. Hicks said the Americans feared the calls were a hoax, designed to lure the Americans into "a trap."

Then, around 3 a.m., Mr. Hicks received a call from the prime minister of Libya, informing him that Mr. Stevens was dead. "I think it was the saddest phone call I've ever had in my life," Mr. Hicks said, choking up. He said he immediately called the State Department to inform them.

Mr. Thompson, the deputy coordinator for operations, testified that he thought the U.S. needed to activate an interagency advisory group called the Foreign Emergency Support Team, but was told that top State Department officials had already determined that sending the team wasn't "in the menu of options."

The State Department has said that the team, based in the U.S., wouldn't have arrived in Libya in time to make any difference. Daniel Benjamin, the head of counterterrorism at the time of the September attacks and Mr. Thompson's former boss, has said that the question of whether to deploy the team was posed early, and the State Department made the correct decision against sending it.

Meanwhile, Mr. Nordstrom, the security chief, testified that the Benghazi compound failed to meet security standards, even though it faced some of the gravest security threats. He also questioned why an independent Accountability Review Board that investigated the attacks didn't expand its probe to cover decisions made higher up the chain of command.

The three witnesses also testified they asked for more security before the attacks, but were rebuffed. Mr. Hicks said that at one point, he felt so vulnerable he asked diplomatic security officers if they would train diplomats how to handle guns.

Mr. Nordstrom said he told officials in February 2012 he wouldn't support occupying the diplomatic compound in Benghazi until security upgrades had been completed. A government official waived requirements that the Benghazi compound meet security standards, Mr. Nordstrom said.

Mr. Nordstrom said the Accountability Review Board didn't properly delve into the matter because it didn't talk to the right people. "They stopped short of interviewing people who I personally know were involved in key decisions," he testified.

State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell, saying Wednesday he wouldn't respond specifically to testimony, criticized days worth of congressional leaks leading up to Wednesday's hearing. "We're willing to work with Congress, but that cooperation has to go both ways," he said.

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